Memorable moment

Another memorable moment

One more memorable moment

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The seventh season of Doctor Who ran between 3 January1970 and 20 June 1970. The debut series of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, it was the first series produced and broadcast in colour and the first set entirely in one time period and almost entirely on Earth. Although the series did not have an overall story arc, it did feature a recurring subplot of the Doctor trying to adjust to life as an exile while trying to circumvent the restrictions placed upon him by the Time Lords. Beginning with this series and continuing for the next few years, most storylines involve the Doctor working with UNIT.

It consisted of four serials and twenty-five episodes. It was the shortest series of Doctor Who to date (and had the fewest number of serials until Season 23). It has the distinction of being the earliest Doctor Who series to exist in its entirety (though not completely in colour, with the monochromatic copies of episodes later subjected to various recolourisation techniques) in the BBC archives. This is also the first series (other than the first one) to not feature any returning monsters from earlier stories.

Beginning with this series and continuing through the Pertwee era, the BBC changed the show's scheduling with new, shorter series from this point beginning in either January or very late December, rather than Autumn as had been the previous format; the series would return to an Autumn series start in the Tom Baker era. The new scheduling reflected the change from around forty to forty-five episodes a series to more or less twenty-six per series, though the length of the episodes remained the same.

Production-wise, this season was a rather prominent transitionary period for the show, accentuated by a year-long hiatus following the conclusion of The War Games. With the 1960's coming to a close, this season saw the last two stories to be filmed during the decade: Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians, both of which were filmed in late 1969. Additionally, as mentioned before, the series made the leap from monochrome to full-colour, crossing paths with the arrival of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. Having done away with the entire main cast at the end of the previous season, Season 7 also built up a new team for the Doctor, consisting of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart & Sergeant Benton (both of whom had already been introduced in The Web of Fear and The Invasion respectively) and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. This also saw the only time in the classic series where there was no defined producer for a time, with Barry Letts only taking up the role midway through production of Doctor Who and the Silurians. With the show amassing a considerably larger budget this season, Letts gave the show many technological achievements that came with its new colour presentation, most notably Colour-Separation Overlay, and stories began to feature a greater amount of on-location filming and action sequences than before. Overall, the seventh season marked the departure of several staples of the 1960s seasons, while introducing many more elements that would become prevalent for the rest of Doctor Who's run.

Contrary to common belief, season 10 kicked off in the last week of December 1972 — not in 1973, as would be expected. Season 10 actually began nine years after season 1 started. In fact, The Three Doctors began nine years to the week after The Daleks first aired.

For the purposes of this list, "Series 4" is considered to be the production series 4, which ran all the way from Time Crash to The End of Time.

The years seen in this section may seem decidedly "off". Remember, however, that this list only gives the first year in which an episode from a series was broadcast. David Tennant, unusual amongst other Doctors, began and ended on special episodes, not regular ones. Thus, his series actually begin in 2005, 2006 and 2007 — not 2006, 2007 and 2008 as is commonly thought.